FBK Partner Igor Churkin at Kazan Legal Week 2024

FBK has taken part in Kazan Legal Week 2024, where top managers of Russian and international companies and partners of leading law and consulting firms discussed the most pressing topics of Russian business development.

When presenting his report titled ‘The Russian Economy and Business Prospects in 2024: an Analyst's View’ as part of the business programme, Igor Churkin, Partner at FBK, noted that the Russian economy's growth in 2023 was 3.6% (RUB 4.9 trillion) which fully compensated for the 2022 downturn. According to Igor, 2023 was another successful year for the Russian economy; however the GDP growth rate, in his opinion, may slow down.

At the same time, the Russian economy has been facing a number of issues, which define the business outlook and directly curb the growth of the Russian economy. Among the major factors Igor Churkin names tight labour market environment, inflation risks and expensive debt financing. By 2030, the country's manpower shortage will only increase and will reach from 2 to 4 million people, according to various estimates. Despite an increase in the key rate from 7.5% in early 2023 to 16% in December 2023, which, on the one hand, led to higher loan interest rates making them less affordable, in 2023 the corporate lending market managed to overcome the challenges of 2022. The growth of the loan portfolio totalled RUB 13.3 trillion. Igor Churkin estimates that in 2024 – 2027 the demand for loans will remain high, however the growth pace will slow down.

Another important topic on the business forum’s agenda was the situation on the M&A market after the period of active withdrawal of foreign investors from the country and the change of ownership of Russian companies. M&A transaction support is one of FBK's priority areas, so in 2024 the firm expects the M&A market to remain strong, primarily due to an increase in the number of transactions between Russian investors.